The human rights worker linked to the arrest of a senior British Army officer
accused of leaking sensitive information in Afghanistan said the Ministry of
Defence had put her life at risk.

Human rights worker Rachel Reid has hit back at the MoD over alleged secrets leaks to Lt Col Owen McNally

By Caroline Gammell

7:55AM GMT 06 Feb 2009

Rachel Reid, 36, was named as the recipient of classified information from Lt Col Owen McNally, who has been flown back to Britain pending further investigation.

He is alleged to have met Miss Reid, who works for Human Rights Watch, on several occasions in Kabul and discussed civilian casualties.

But she said they had only met twice, dismissed any suggestion that the pair might have become "close" and claimed that the MoD was trying to destroy her reputation.

"I do not understand how these two meetings might have led the British government to accuse McNally of a serious crime that could lead to a hefty jail sentence, and why my government might want to see my reputation dragged through the mud, when I live in a country where a woman's reputation can mean her life," she wrote in The Guardian.

"Why was my name released to the media by the MoD with a (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) libel that our relationship was close?

"They would know exactly what impression they were creating, and presumably decided that my reputation was expendable."

Lt Col McNally, 48, was on a year-long deployment in Afghanistan, working for Nato's International Security Assistance Force when he was detained.

He was held on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act and his case is being looked at by Scotland Yard who will decide what action to take.

Mark Stephens, Miss Reid's lawyer, said his client had only ever acted with professionalism.

"She acted throughout with propriety and professionalism, any suggestion or imputation made to the contrary, that she had a relationship with the colonel that was other than at arm's length - will be met with legal proceedings," he said.

Last year campaign group Human Rights Watch said civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and Nato air strikes nearly tripled to at least 1,633 between 2006 and 2007. The group said it used "the most conservative figures available".

Last October, aid worker Gayle Williams, 34, from London, was shot dead by two men on a motorbike in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Taliban said it had ordered the killing because she was working for a Christian organisation.